Combined air cooling humidifying apparatus for oxygen tents



Sept. 16, 1958 L. G. NETTELAND COMBINED AIR COOLING HUMIDIFYING APPARATUS FOR OXYGEN TENTS Filed Nov. 10, 1952 COMBEQED COQLKNG HUMIDIFYING APPARATUS FOR OXYGEN TENTS Loyal G. Netteland, Canandaigua, N. Y., assignor to Modern Hospital Equipment, Incorporated, Waseca, Minn, a corporation of Minnesota Application November 10, 1952, Serial No; 319,685

4 Claims. (1. 128-191) This invention relates generally to a cooling and humidifying system for the air in oxygen tents and the like.

It has long been a problem to provide simultaneous cooling and humidifying of the air in an oxygen tent since conventional cooling systems cause considerable reduction in the relative humidity of the air within the tent and this dry air tends to irritate rather than clear up difficulties in the respiratory tract, and, in many instances, causes coughing spasms.

It is an object of this invention to provide a dual system for cooling and humidifying the air within an oxygen tent.

It is another object to provide apparatus having a refrigerated heat exchanger which cools both the humidifying water and the air circulated therethrough whereby cooled moisture-laden air may be blown into the oxygen tent to thus maintain a predetermined relative humidity as well as air temperature therein.

It it still another object to provide apparatus constructed to withdraw warm air from an oxygen tent, cooling and humidifying said air, and recirculating the same back into the tent whereby a high oxygen content thereof may be maintained along with a controlled humidity.

More specifically, it is an object to provide a combination cooling and humidifying system for the air in oxygen tents whereby the air and humidifying liquid are simultaneously cooled by a refrigerating coil having a portion thereof submerged below the liquid level and having a blower for drawing air from the oxygen tent and delivering the same through said coil to cool said air which is then humidified and further cooled with cold mechanically diifused liquid immediately before being discharged back into the oxygen tent.

It is still a further object to provide a system for cooling and humidifying air wherein cold liquid is dispersed into the air in a fine spray to both cool and humidify said air.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing my apparatus as attached to a conventional oxygen tent;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the cooling and humidifying apparatus with the cover removed and showing the blower and air intake and outlet connected with said apparatus;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the complete apparatus with portions of the casing broken away; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of Fig. 2.

States Patent As illustrated in the accompanying drawings, I show a conventional type of oxygen tent 7 having an upstanding ice of course, constructed of air-tight material to form a sealed closure around the patient to receive oxygen therapy.

I provide a cooling and humidifying system for recirculating air taken from within the tent, cooling and humidifying the same, and blowing the same back into the tent under pressure. The apparatus is housed within a suitable casing such as the wheeled casing 9 having the wheels 9a mountedthereunder. A conventional refrigeration system, designated as an entirety by the numeral 10, is mounted within the lower portion of casing 9 and has an evaporating coil 10a housed within the cooling and humidifying chamber 11 of the air conditioning casing 12 mounted in the upper portion of said wheeled casing 9. The casing 12, in the form shown, is divided into two compartments, a liquid storage compartment 13 and the air conditioning compartment 11, and a partition 12a provides such a division in the form of the invention illustrated.

A float valve 14 is swingably mounted in compartment 11 and controls the flow of liquid from the' supply reservoir 13 through an inter-communication conduit 15 extending through partition 12a. The level of the liquid in air conditioning compartment 11 is maintained so that the lower portion of the cooling coil 10a is submerged below the surface thereof, a suitable liquid level being shown by the dotted lines 16a of Figs. 3 and 4.

A mechanical liquid vaporizer, designated as an entirety by the numeral 16, is mounted within the air conditioning chamber 11 on the outlet side of cooling coil 10a, as best shown in Fig. 2, and has a high speed motor enclosed within a waterproof casing. This motor drives a high speed liquid dispersing and vaporizing impeller 17 journalled for rotation in an open topped impeller housing 18 which closely surrounds the outer periphery of impeller 17 at the bottom thereof and diverges outwardly therefrom toward the top to permit said impeller to discharge a vaporized spray upwardly in a diverging discharge pattern. The lower portion of the housing 18 has a liquid inlet 19 formed therein to permit the water level therewithin to be maintained equal to the level within the air conditioning chamber 11 which is controlled by the float valve 14.

A blower 20 driven by an electric motor 21 is provided for drawing the air out of the tent 7 through conduit 22 and discharging said air through an air inlet 23 into said air conditioning chamber 11 on the intake side of said heat exchanger cooling coil 10a. An air discharge outlet 24 is disposed through the opposite side of casing 12 and discharges the cooled humidified air back into the tent 7 through conduit 25. Obviously, both outlet 24 and inlet 23 are disposed a substantial distance above the liquid level within the air conditioning chamber 11.

The refrigeration system 10 and the motor 21 are controlled by a master switch having the control button 26 best shown in Fig. 1, and the motor of vaporizer 16 is controlled by button 27. A filler cap 28 permits easy filling of liquid supply reservoir 13. A dial type thermometer 29 has its temperature sensing element 29a disposed in front of the air inlet 23 and the refrigeration system thermostat of conventional design has its sensing element 30 also disposed in close association to said air inlet 23 and has a control knob 31, best shown in Figs. 1 and 3, for varying the setting thereof.

The following is a description of the operation of the invention disclosed herein. If it is desired to both cool and humidify the air simultaneously, both of the switch buttons 26 and 27 are shifted to on position and the control knob 31 turned to the desired cooling position whereby the operation of the refrigeration system will be thermostatically controlled. The air is drawn from the tent 7 through intake tube 22 by the blower and is discharged into the air conditioning chamber 11 through intake opening 23. The air fiows through the cooling coils llla and into-the humidifying portion ofchamber 11 Where the mechanically vaporized moisture is constantly dispersed by the vaporizing impeller 17. It should be noted that the position-of the densest dispersion from said impeller is disposed directly in front of the outlet 24 in order to obtain maximum absorption of the moisture by the cooled air which has been passed through the coil 10a and is traveling outwardly through the outlet 24 back into the oxygen tent 7 through conduit 25. Since the lower portion of the cooling coil 10a is submerged below the water surface, said coil of course continuously cools the water so that said water being diffused into the 'area through which the air is constantly fiowing will also serve to further reduce the temperature of said airand will also serve to substantially saturate said'air'as the-same passes through the humidi'fyingportion of chamber'll. While it is true that this saturation temperature isrelatively low, it shouldbe noted that even at this temperature a substantial amount 'of'moisture is added to the air after the same has been cooled by being passed through the coils 10a and the humidity therebf'is"materially increased by this humidifying operation and --a healthful humidity is maintained constantly in the 'air within the oxygen tent 7 even after the sa'rne'has been warmed by the heat produced by the patients bodyand breathing confined therewithin. Obviously, in certain instances, high relative humidity-is not necessary or desirable and, in such instances, the cooling systemimay' be operated'without the vaporizer 16. It is also'obvi'ous that any desired means for introducing oxygen ihto theftent may be used such as connecting the same fOr discharge directly into the air conditioning chamber ll-as by the oxygen inlet tube 32 extending downwardly-* 'into said chamber and controlled by any suitable valve-such:as tl1e st'op valve 32a.

It will be seen that I have provided a relatively simple, yet highly efiicient, apparatus for controllablym'aintaining a predetermined temperature within an oxygentent and constantly humidifying the air therein simultaneously with the cooling thereof. The coils 100 not only -cool the air but also cool the hum'idifying liquid whereby the liquid spray further cools the airpassed therethrough while humidifying thesame.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing frornthe scope of my invention, whichconsists of the matter shown and described herein and set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1.- Air conditioning apparatus particularly adapted for use in conditioning the air of an oxygen tent, said apparatus comprising a casing defining an air conditioning chamber, mechanism within said chamber for maintaining a predetermined liquid leveltherein, heat exchanger cooling means disposed in said chamber and having a minor portion thereof submerged below the liquid level in said chamber with a substantially greater major portion thereof disposed above the liquid level and extending transversely across'said' chamber andoc'cupying a major portion of the cross sectional area of the'charnber, a blower discharging air into said air conditioning chamher through an inlet disposed onone side of said cooling means and directing substantially the entire discharge onto said heat exchanger cooling means, said 'air' conditioning chamber having a discharge outlet'on the opposite side of said cooling means adapted to be connected with an oxygen tent, and means disposed between said opposite side of the cooling means and said outlet for discharging a finely divided spray of the liquid in said air conditioning chamber with the most densely dispersed area of discharge disposed substantially adjacent the air discharge outlet to substantially saturate said air discharged through said outlet.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1 and said blower being adapted to be connected with the oxygen tent for withdrawing the air therefrom, and said heat exchanger cooling means comprising a refrigeration coil.

3. Air conditioning apparatus particularly adapted for use with an oxygen tent and producing simultaneous cooling and humidifying of the air circulated therethrough, said aparatus comprising a casing defining an air conditioning chamber therein, mechanism within said chamber for maintaining a predetermined liquid level therein, a heat exchanger element mounted in saidchamber and extending laterally from a point adjacent one side of said tially greater portion thereof disposed above said liquid level, means operatively associated with said heat exchanger element for cooling the same, said chamber'having'an air inlet in communication'therewith and disposed on one side of said heat exchanger element, said chamber also having anair outlet in communication therewith and dispesedon theopposite side of said heat exchanger element, blower means in communication with said air conditioning chamber for causing air to flow into said chamberthrough said inlet, about the portion of the heat-exchanger element disposed above said liquid level and out through said outlet, a spray producing rotor at leastipartially'submerged below said liquid level and having means operatively associated therewith for producing high speed rotation thereof to discharge a spray of liquid upwardly into the air passing through said chamber, said spray producing rotor being disposed between said heat exchanger element and said air outlet, said rotor rotating'inone direction, a divergent housing surrounding the outer periphe'ry of said rotor thereby defining a discharge-portion to'producezan upwardly directed vaporized spray in adivergingsdischarge pattern, said discharge portion being positioned adjacent said air outlet such that the densest discharge of ;the vaporized spray is disposed directlyin frontof the air outlet in order to obtain maximum absorption of the moisture by the cooled air passing through said chamber.

"4; The structure-as set-forth in claim 3 wherein said chamber. has an oxygen inlet connected therewith for introducing. oxygeninto the air passing through the chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,669,971 Collins May 15, 1928 976,228 Hutzel Oct. 9,:1934 2,123,742 Ofien July 12, 1938 2,143,628 Lea .Jan. 10,1939 2,531,506 Geneck Nov. 28,1950 2,677,253 Lee May4, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 679,265 Great Britain Sept. 17, 1952 

